


long may they reign

by k_152



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, ep 26 spoilers, they/them pronouns for Mollymauk
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 19:12:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,418
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16435214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/k_152/pseuds/k_152
Summary: “When someone dies in my clan, we know that their spirit never leaves.”Molly dies.





	long may they reign

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know about any typos! i wrote this out on my phone and didn't really proofread oops
> 
> enjoy!

“ **Do not stand at my grave and weep** ”

 

The coat fluttered in the wind.

 

A few wandering wagons would see it and stop.

 

They’d see the freshly raised earth and send a few quiet well wishes to the poor soul lost. They’d leave the coat well alone out of respect. They’d not dare disturb the dead.

 

Those wandering few could continue on their way, keeping the coat on their mind until they no longer needed to.

 

They could forget the tiefling, smaller in death, lying under the earth soon, not having to pay it mind.

 

The three broken beings further down the road did not have the same blessing.

 

**“I am not there. I do not sleep. “**

 

A tiefling woke up. He, no she, no. They did not know. They did not know where they were. They did not know what had happened to them.

 

They remembered a man in a black feathered cloak — soft grins and sympathetic eyes. Nothing else.

 

Well, not nothing else. They remembered a whisper on the wind. They were not meant to be here. They knew that much.

 

They were wrapped in something. They had to get out.

 

The pressure weighing on their chest was beginning to hurt.

 

“ **I am a thousand winds that blow.** “

 

A young human wrapped in blues blinked against the harsh wind. Her eyes squinted, and if there were tears as she turned to make a comment for someone who was no longer there.

 

Well.

 

None of her companions mentioned it.

 

“ **I am the diamond glints on snow**.”

 

A small goblin girl felt the itch in her fingers again. She tried not to take anything too important, just small shiny things, little trinkets.

 

She eyed a person sitting on the side of the road. He was dressed in rags and had an expression of abject misery as he stared into the tankard in his hands.

 

The little goblin girl spied a small glimmer next to him. She almost started forward for it, before remembering red eyes and jeweled horns and a smile that changed over time, becoming more and more genuine.

 

She tore her eyes away from the man, looking for a pompously dressed fucker she could take from instead.

 

**“I am the sunlight on ripened grain.** ”

 

A fallen angel struggled against her restraints. The cage she sat trapped in rattled around her.

 

A few pieces of stale bread were thrown in the cage, small, hardly anything at all. She slammed herself against the side of the cage once more, into the sunlight that fell upon the bread.

 

The lackey that threw it in recoiled where he stood, throwing the tarp back across the cage and blocking out all direct light once again.

 

The woman tiefling in the cage with her tried to soothe her. The half-orc next to them did the same.

 

“It is okay, Yasha! Your bestest friend is coming to get us. They would come for us — for you — in a heartbeat!”

 

A smile, small, barely there, but a smile nonetheless, “You’re right.”

 

“ **I am the gentle autumn rain.”**

 

The dirt road was the only constant.

 

The sky had split open, and the human’s emotions, thoughts, attitudes, they all changed at a moment’s notice.

 

“What were they like?” the dwarven woman next to her asked.

 

The taller woman smiled slightly, “They were an asshole.” Her smile receded, and she continued, “But also, like, a really good person, you know? Too good of a person to be stuck with us.”

 

The dwarf nodded, haltingly, “I know... I know what it’s like to lose someone you’re close to.” She paused, searching for the words, “I’m not great at the whole... emotions thing.”

 

“I can tell.” A snicker.

 

“Hey! I’m trying to be nice here.”

 

“No, no. I know. I... appreciate it.” A pause. “I’m not so good at it either.”

 

“What else were they like?”

 

“ **When you awaken in the morning's hush** ”

 

The soft movements of animals beginning to wake up for the day, rustling in the bushes, unseen but heard, were the only present noises.

 

“How do you handle it?” the human in blue asked, voice cracking, fracturing the silence of the sunrise.

 

“When someone dies we know that their spirit never leaves, it gets returned to nature.” the firbolg woman clasps one hand around each of the humans, offers a gentle smile towards the goblin sitting too far away. She continues, “I find ways to see them in nature. Sometimes just in leaves on the trees. I pick one leaf, and I know that it is a spirit waving to me.” 

 

The human woman casts a glance at a small bundle of purple flowers persevering on the edge of their camp. A smile curled the corner of her mouth.

 

“Your friend is here. They have not left.”

 

“ **I am the swift uplifting rush”**

 

The tiefling sat in the dirt, looking at the paper left on their chest, wearing the coat, clutching the fabric they had been buried in and altogether looking utterly and absolutely miserable. Blood still stained their shirt and the large rip that was in the center of it all, both front and back, was an obvious testament to what had happened to them.

 

“ **Of quiet birds in circled flight.”**

 

The man called his owl to his side and watched the circling flight of the graceful wings. His gaze fell beyond the owl, and the trees, the soft clouds above that.

 

Searchingly, the man gazed at the stars, looking for answers, excuses, a chance to go back.

 

He gazed.

 

Even longer, he gazed.

 

A claw or two landed on his head, slowly accompanied by the pain of talons and the weight of an owl.

 

Startled, the human jolted back.

 

He sighed, ran a hand through the feathers of his familiar, and sighed again.

 

“I hope you can be a cat again soon,” a small pat to the top of the owl’s head, a soft cooing, and the owl landed on his shoulder, nuzzling into the side of his face.

 

“This is... not so bad, though.”

 

**“I am the soft stars that shine at night.** ”

 

The tiefling gazed at the stars and felt the heavy weight of the stars’ watch in return.

 

A quick bow of the head, a small gesture, and a few last moments observing the night, and then they set off. There were footsteps in the snow, leading to a place unknown, but better than camping by one’s own grave — at least they assumed so.

 

They figured not much could be worse than sleeping next to your own resting spot.

 

Traveling by starlight was not the most convenient, they discovered, but it had to be more peaceful than during the day.

 

They could see the hoof prints and the wheel grooves of past travelers and was grateful they would not be forced to interact with people quite yet.

 

Another glance up at the stars revealed a streak across the sky.

 

The tiefling nodded back and continued walking.

 

“ **Do not stand at my grave and cry;”**

 

“I miss them,” the young girl’s voice cracked. She looked down and back up at her friends, before looking down again.

 

She scrubbed at her face, “Gods fucking dammit, I’m so tired of crying.” She stood up from the table.

 

“I’m gonna go get high or something. It’s what they’d want, right?” she questioned. The wizard stood up as well, patted her arm and started steering her towards her room.

 

He looked back at the little goblin girl, said, “Give us a few minutes, and then come join us, ja? I don’t think any of us want to be alone in our rooms tonight.”

 

The goblin girl nodded. She looked back at the firbolg and dwarf at the table, meeting their sympathetic gazes and taking a large swing from her flask.

 

“ **I am not there. I did not die.** ”

 

A tiefling stepped into a tavern. Their eyes searched the room as the low din of talking fell completely silent.

 

They spotted those they were looking for in the back.

 

They made their way to the corner.

 

“Beau.” She gaped, her mouth wide and her eyes glistening with tears unfallen.

 

“Caleb.” He stared in abject wonder, a mix of emotions that the tiefling couldn’t identify but respected all the same.

 

“Nott.” She mouthed a couple curse words but could not find the effort to actually say them.

 

Mollymauk Tealeaf smirked, glancing at the others at the table before returning their eyes to their friends — their family.

 

“Miss me?”

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> (unpictured: beau getting up, hugging him, calling him an asshole, and rolling a nat 1 on punching him all at the same time. Keg is amused.)
> 
>  
> 
> i have recently accepted that i actually prefer the narrative of molly staying dead. it gives a heaviness to the group and a fast maturity that i think they need. also i love caduceus lmao. 
> 
> that being said, i wrote the majority of this before i reached that realization and was still in denial. i found it again recently and decided i liked it enough to finish it (and i just didnt want to switch it all over to the canon storyline so,,,,)


End file.
